Personal Development Goals for Managers – Learning to Lead

Everyone’s goal in this life should be to grow into a better person than they were the day before. I mean, if you are not willing to become better, shouldn’t you just be dead?Personal development is essential to business and our personal lives. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the same person. I want to grow and develop into a stronger version of me. If becoming better is going to take place in your life, you’re going to need to make some goals.

You cannot just sit around and not make any plans on being better, stronger or wiser. If personal growth is what you want, you’re going to have to take the necessary steps.

When you are in management or really any position (don’t think that because you are not a manager, this isn’t for you, we are all leaders), we need some personal development goals.

GOALS ARE IMPORTANT

It’s so important that we set goals. I cannot stress this thought enough. Goals keep us on the right track – striving for something. Someone suggested that if you do not have any goals, then you’re just floating through life.

Take some time and focus your attention on these development goals that potentially could make you a better leader.

Here are a few goals that all of us should be working toward:

BE A GOOD LISTENER

I think, as a leader, it’s important to know that you do not have all the answers. You need to take the time and listen to what other people have to say. Listen to your employees and ask them what they think often.

BE A DEVELOPER OF PEOPLE

Learn to help people develop.If you do not have any goals for yourself, and you are not willing to help yourself grow as a person, you’re not going to care about others and their need for development. In business, it’s essential to shift the attention off yourself, and develop those around you. A strong leader makes those around him strong.

UNDERSTAND THAT YOU HAVE LIMITS, KNOW YOUR LIMITS

Remember, you can not do everything. You are not superman, no matter much you think you are.

You need to delegate. You need other people to come beside you and help you. One of the greatest follies of any manager is not allowing people to get involved. Delegating is essential to expanding your workload, and being able to get work done beyond the ability of one person.

BE WILLING TO LEARN

Take the information from this blog and grow personally. You have to be willing to learn. In all of the development skills that managers miss the most, it’s willingness to learn from others and from their own mistakes. Just because someone is at the highest position that a job has to offer doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to learn – you can always be better in everything that you do.

Time will destroy you if you are not a manager of it. Make sure that you are using your time wisely. Every leader has the same amount of time in one day, why is that some get far more accomplished?

Time management is an essential goal in our life. Consider these thoughts: -Use time management software -Attack the most important task first in your day -Don’t let things sidetrack you from the most important things -Make sure that you take breaks to clear your head -Follow a schedule for each day – stay close to the schedule-Always be ready for the unexpected

LEARN TO RESOLVE CONFLICT

Conflict is everywhere. You have to develop skills that will help you handle conflict. I recommend creating a personal policy in how you should react to each conflict. With a plan in place, this will help you keep your cool and follow a trusted direction.

DEAL WITH FAILURE CORRECTLY

Guess what? One day you are going to make a wrong decision. We need to have the right perception when this happens. Think of your mistakes in this way, not that you made a mistake but that you found out a way that doesn’t work. No sweat – mistakes happens.

You have to handle yourself correctly when that takes place. Many people try to cover up their mistakes. Just accept the wrong and move on. Every great leader has made mistakes.

Okay. Here we have it. We have some homework to work on this week and the days ahead. Here are some points to help you learn at a faster rate. Take some small recipe cards out and write down these development skills. You need to remind yourself often and keep a journal of your progress.

Work at making yourself better – that’s the goal. The road of development may be a slow progress, but if you are making steps forward, that’s what is important.

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19 thoughts

Personal development and goals are so crucial in being successful. I like your part on time management as well. There are so many things that will distract you from the task at hand these days. It really takes good time management to stay on track and get things done.

What do you think is the most important aspect a person in a managerial position should have as a trait?

I think your top trait would learnig from everyone. If you are going to be growing and bettering yourself you have to be able to grow personally yourself. When you grow yourself this is when you can see others start to grow as well.

This is really cool. I always been a dream of mine to quit my 9 to 5 average job and start my own business. Be my own boss and make money while i am sleeping. But thing is I just don’t know where to start, it’s so many things that come into play when doing your thing. And it can be very overwhelming. But i’m glad I came across this article because i am surely going to take the first steps to my dream by writing down some goals and managing my down time better. Thanks, definitely going to share this on facebook.

I like how this post describes a few different aspects of developing goals. Business leaders and managers have to have them, to lead by example.
Putting being a good listener first is great, and also I like the reminder to attack the most important task early in the day.
It is usually the one that gets put off, which can have a negative effect on the rest of the day. Thank you for the reminders and I will visit your site again.

Yes. There is a great book that you can read called, “Eat that Frog” it’s a book about that very thing. You need to find the “frog” or the most difficult task and get it done. When the “frog” has been eaten then you’ll be able to fly through the other tasks. lol. It’s a great book.

Interesting points you make here. I personally am an advocate of personal development. It certainly is the essence of being alive. Continuous self-improvement is something we should all strive for in everything we do each and every day. We should beware though of not comparing ourselves to others. The only person we should strive to beat is our yesterday self!

I think being a good listener is very important and at the same time something which is quite difficult to master. I have been trying to practice a few leadership qualities after reading a book by Dale Carnegie and trust me it is not as easy as it sounds.
It requires a lot of patience and a lot of practice. But all in all, I totally agree with your points!

Personal development is difficult, you’re right. But there are a lot of things in life that’s hard. We can’t let hard things be an excuse to not being a better us. My suggestions is try to work on one point each month or even year. If you are making progress then it’s a good thing.

I really enjoyed some of the points you made in this post, such as the importance of time management, conflict resolution, and delegation. I was a manager for years, and I truly believe that these are definitely the most important parts of being a manager. Goals are essential in improvement, and like you said, there is always room for improvement with everybody, whether it’s someone’s first day as an entry level employee, or a CEO. I’ve found that listening to my employees and finding out what their ideas and desires are goes a long way in gaining their respect. What do you think is the best way to help your employees develop, and the company or business develop?

There are two thoughts that come to my mind. I was a CEO for many years and saw great improvement in the development of people. I think that as a leader you have to remember that you are leading people not pushing them. We need to be kind and patient and at the same time we need to be firm and concise.

Here are some thoughts.

1. Balanced people produce balanced people. Someone mentioned that their boss was always deterring his mistakes and blaming others. Leaders have to accept their mistakes and expect the same from those they lead.

2. Caring about the individual is essential. In order to create a strong team and a work-hard environment, leaders need to care about those they lead.

3. Having goals is also very important. We all need a target. A company should have a target for the individuals as well as the company as a whole.

Thank you for your wonderful article about self-developing. Actually, this type of study is attract me to the limit, i love it.
I believe that it is the best skill in your life is the ability to learn new things even if you are in the executive management. It is mandatory to keep learning and your learning carve must be increasing with time not decreasing.
I really appreciate your article about self development and continuous improvement.

Great article, thanks for sharing, I personally love to read this kind of articles about how we can be better.
It only takes the will to start, but when I read a good article like yours it’s easier to find the path to take the first step.
A strong point you make here is the will to be better and then help other to do and be better in life, this make a strong motivation point.